And they laid hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison.
και επεβαλον τας χειρας αυτων επι τους αποστολους και εθεντο αυτους εν τηρησει δημοσια
9 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Now they attack them more fiercely. Yet they did not immediately bring them to trial, expecting them to become more subdued. How is it clear that they attacked them more fiercely? From the fact that they sent them to the public prison.
Now they attack the apostles with greater ferocity, but they do not immediately put them on trial. They suppose that public custody will strike them with greater force.
Please observe how the life of the apostles is woven together. First there is sorrow because of Christ's Ascension, then joy because of the descent of the Holy Spirit. Again there is sorrow from those who mocked them, and again joy from the multiplication of believers and from the sign of the miracle.
Then there is sorrow again through the imprisonment of Peter and John (Acts 4:3), and again joy through their acquittal. Finally, now there is joy from the radiance and the signs, but sorrow from the high priest and from those who seized them.
Yes, their life, one may say, is like the life of all who live according to God.
They laid their hands on the apostles and shut them in the public prison. But the truths already proclaimed, and the miracles performed by the apostles, could not be confined within prison walls.
They were already bearing fruit freely in a circle not subject to the external Jewish authority. Thus every resistance by the judges to Christ's teaching was useless. The apostles' imprisonment itself did not help the high priest and the Sadducees.
For "the angel of the Lord opened the prison doors by night," and, leading the apostles out, said, "Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life." That is, speak the teaching of Christ.
The apostles fulfilled what God commanded them through the angel. In general, in matters of true convictions, useful to public welfare and to each conscience, violent and harsh measures against preachers of righteousness do not achieve their purpose. They do not help malice.
Truth, silenced and crushed for a time, will sooner or later triumph. Conviction can be met with equal force only by conviction itself, by rebuke and reasoned arguments. These must be founded on respect for one who thinks differently, and on love for the neighbor's benefit.
They must even be founded on love for the benefit of all mankind. Falsehood has no firmness. But the Jewish high priest and the Sadducees did not understand the matter in this way.
When they learned that the apostles had miraculously come out of the locked prison and were again preaching in the temple within the hearing of all the people, they were torn with rage. They plotted to put them to death (Acts 5:33).
Fortunately, among the members of the enraged Sanhedrin there was one good, honest, and wise man. Moreover, he was one of the Pharisees, who believed in God's providence, and not one of the Sadducees.
His name was Gamaliel, and he was held in great honor by all the people. He persuaded the other members not to harm the apostles and not to plan their slaughter.
"Keep away from these men and let them alone," Gamaliel said. "For if this undertaking," that is, the apostles' preaching, "and this work," that is, all their activity, "is from men, it will be overthrown.
But if it is from God, you cannot overthrow it. Take care lest you even be found fighters against God" (Acts 5:38-39). They listened to him and, after admonishing the apostles, released them.
If there were more people in the world with Gamaliel's convictions, just described, then the history of Christianity would have recorded fewer accounts of tortures, fires, torments, swords, and gallows for the name of Christ.
But Gamaliels are rare in history. Before the Christian faith became dominant in the world, it had many martyrs and confessors during the first three centuries.
The streets and squares of Rome, Alexandria, Bithynia, Lyons, and Antioch were soaked with Christian blood. Yet, by the wise ordering of providence, the blood of the martyrs was the seed of new Christians.
In the life, zeal, and sufferings of the holy apostles and the first Christians, there is an example for us also. We too must confess our faith fearlessly and patiently endure life's sorrows.
We must believe that God sees both our life and our sufferings. In His own time He will send consolation to us as well, just as He did not leave the apostles in prison without His help.
The Sadducees were heretics because they said there was neither resurrection of the dead (Mt 21:23), nor spirits, nor angels (Acts 23:6, 8). The number of these heretics increased so much that they formed one part of the Jewish assembly, while the Pharisees formed the other.
When the high priest then in office, presumably Caiaphas, and all who were with him heard that the apostles were preaching the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, they understood what followed. The apostles were confirming their preaching by many miracles.
They therefore saw that their heresy, which denied the resurrection from the dead, was being exposed as false. By contrast, faith in Christ was increasing and growing stronger hour by hour.
For this reason they rose up and were filled with zeal. That is, they so fervently defended their teaching that they dared to lay their lawless hands upon those divine teachers.
"And they seized them and put them in the common prison," that is, they shut them in the public prison. Those fighters against God did this with the intention of hindering the truth of the gospel preaching and destroying faith in Christ.
Having received a new sign as confirmation of God's good pleasure, for the place where they prayed was shaken, they preached the gospel with still greater boldness. This became the cause of the apostles' second imprisonment, now in the public prison, as disturbers of public peace.
The Sadducees were again the chief actors. To mock their vain designs, an angel opened the prison doors for the apostles, though they denied the very existence of angels. They were again in the temple and teaching.
From there they were taken and brought before the Sanhedrin. They were examined as men who had violated the command of the authorities. They were not asked how they had come out of prison. They were asked why they preached about Him whose name was hateful to them.
But the apostles, without hesitation, said that one must obey God rather than men. They preached the resurrection of Jesus and the witness of the Holy Spirit. The Sadducees could no longer endure this and wished to put the apostles to death.
Yet the voice of the learned Pharisee Gamaliel, honored by all the people, served the work of God. They were only punished and released.
The increase in the number of believers and the fame of the preachers of the risen Christ greatly irritated the high priest and the other members of the Sanhedrin. This was especially true of those who belonged to the heresy of the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection from the dead (Acts 4:2).
So the apostles were imprisoned. This time the Sanhedrin decided to deal far more harshly with the apostles than it had dealt with Peter and John (Acts 4:21). It did not intend to end the matter with beatings alone.
Yet on this occasion the apostles' sufferings were limited to beatings (Acts 5:40). The Sanhedrin wished to put them to death (v. 33). But the Lord Himself showed them help by wondrously bringing them out of prison.
It is true that the Sanhedrin did not treat the apostles more harshly because it listened to Gamaliel's counsel (vv. 34-40). Yet one may think that Gamaliel dared to speak so sympathetically for the accused only because of the angel's wondrous deliverance of the apostles from prison.
For the same reason, the Sanhedrin did not rise against Gamaliel or reproach him as it once reproached Nicodemus (Jn 7:50 and following). This miracle must have powerfully affected the judges.
It showed them that they were plainly dealing with men guarded by God. Consequently, they were fighting against a holy work.
All this naturally could not leave the high priests and Jewish elders at rest. Before their conscience the shadow of the Galilean Whom they had crucified was visibly growing. Unable any longer to endure such success among the apostles, the high priests again ordered them seized and this time cast into prison.
"They laid hands on them": they used violence against the apostles, imprisoning them in the public jail as criminals. This was the second and more severe persecution of the apostles; cf. Chrysostom and Theophylact. It was stirred up exclusively by the Sadducees, whereas in the earlier persecution the initiative belonged to the priests together with the Sadducees; Acts 4:1. The reason why this sect raised this persecution, besides envy, was undoubtedly the same reason for which it had taken part in the preceding persecution; see the note on Acts 4:2.
The freeing of the apostles from prison was, as it were, one among many miracles. They had been unexpectedly imprisoned without any trial by the high priest and the Sadducees, who were then at the head of the people's administration.
The apostles had long since been freed from the prison, even more quickly than they had been cast into it. An angel led them out, opened the prison doors, and commanded them to proclaim as before the teaching of life and eternal salvation (cf. Jn 6:68).
The envy of the high priest Caiaphas toward the holy apostles' influence upon the people is understandable. So too is the people's aversion to him, given his clearly marked attachment to the Jewish Sadducees.
In the eyes of the ruling pagans, the Sadducees, by their unbelief, appeared equal to them in outlook. But in popular opinion they were considered apostates from the faith, and still more from a pious life.
Thus it is natural to suppose that the people honored the Christians for their piety and revered them for their miracles. By contrast, the Sadducees hated the Christians as representatives of a contrary direction of life and thought.
"Please observe how the life of the apostles is woven together," writes blessed Theophylact. "First there is sorrow because of Christ's Ascension, then joy because of the descent of the Holy Spirit.
Again there is sorrow from those who mocked them, and again joy from the multiplication of believers and from the sign of the miracle. Then there is sorrow again through the imprisonment of Peter and John, and again joy through their acquittal.
Finally, now there is joy from the radiance of the angel's appearance and from the sign, but sorrow from the high priest and from those who seized them. Yes, their life, one may say, is like the life of all who live according to God.
The angel led them out both for their joy and for the benefit of the Jews."
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 13 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS